Making a native partition an extension

[noospaper]

Linux newbie here, had a kernel panic and didn't know how to fix it so I reformatted.

I didn't delete my old extension and recently mounted it so I could retrieve the data. I was wondering if there was any way I could make it the extension to my current native without deleting any of the data? Or if attaching it as an extension was at all possible at this point.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[caf4926]

I'm as puzzled as you with this question?
Not making sense here....

What exactly is your 'extension'?

[DenverD]

caf4926 wrote:
> What exactly is your 'extension'?

for example, are you calling an external USB hard drive your "extension"?

if so, yes--if you didn't format the USB drive it is possible to use
it with your new install..

note: most kernel panics are caused by bad RAM or *very* faulty
software...did you boot the install disk and do both the "Check
Installation Media" and the "Memory Test" (which checks RAM) shown in
this slide http://tinyurl.com/25ydj4a

the RAM test needs to run for *several* hours, like overnight..

--
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]

[hcvv]

I admit that I have the same problem as the others. It seems to be about partitions and file systems, but I am afraid that you are using some wording that embarrasses people.

Maybe you could update yourself a bit with reading: SDB:Basics of partitions, filesystems, mount points - openSUSE

You can also provide us more information about your partitioning by posting the output of

fdisk -l

(if it is realy about partitions).

[noospaper]

So my extension is another partition in the disk where I used to keep all my media.



I believe sda2 is where my OS is, and sda3 used to be an extension to my old operating system before I reformatted. Both were Opensuse.


This is what happens when I enter fdisk -l.

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xbc22bc22

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 16996 18397 11253760 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda2 1 2611 20971520 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 2611 16996 115539968 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 16996 17186 1532928 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 17187 18397 9718784 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

I really hope I'm making sense. I read the article and it's still a bit fuzzy to me. Thanks to all who have been helping.

[caf4926]

A very strange set up.

If it were mine I would want to wipe it and re-do it because I couldn't live with it just knowing it was like that ;-)

sda2 is your /home partition where all your user files are
sda5 is where the OS resides

sda3 seems to be the partition you refer to as your extension.

It is possible though to delete sda3 to create free space where it resides and then resize sda2 to use all that space.
But it ain't pretty and sda5 is a little small for my liking anyway.

[hcvv]

It is a pitty that you did not post the fdisk output between CODE tags instead of what you did now. Now it is barely readable, which you will admit as you have seen the nice columns yourself. For using CODE you have to use the Go Advanced button below right (alas) and then you can select the text and click the # button in the toolbar.

Nevertheless I tried to interprete your fdisk output. I still do not understand what you mean by an extention. I will use the word Extended partition, but that may be somethig completely different from what you use he word for. Be warned.

sda1 is an (the ) Extended partition, that means it holds other, so called Logical partitions, in this case it holds sda5 and sda6. It is a bit strange that your partition table starts with it, normaly it would have been on third place (and called sda3),that is why the warning is there, but this is not fatal, we can live with it.

sda2 is a Primary partition fit for a Linux file system. Seems to be used for your /home.

sda3 is a Primary partition fit for a Linux file system. Seems to be used for your /srv (are you an Apache web server).

sda5 is a Logical partition fit for Linux Swap. Used for swap of course.

sda6 is a Logical partition fit for a Linux file system. Seems to be your root (/) file system.

Now,apart from the strange sequence in the partition table, this is quite normal. When you want to use sda3 for something different that is quite possible. Are you sure there nothing on it of use? Normaly the openSUSE installation puts there some skeleton directories and example files for a web server. And while it is mounted on /srv I would think a complete web server bunch of files is there, for what other reason would it be there????

Else you can use YaST (well some people love Gparted, but YaST > System > Partitioning is quite capable of doing this), to mount it elsewhere where you need it. When you let YaST also format it as e.g. ext4, it will be emptied.

[tararpharazon]

I admit that I have the same problem as the others. It seems to be about partitions and file systems, but I am afraid that you are using some wording that embarrasses people.

Maybe you could update yourself a bit with reading: SDB:Basics of partitions, filesystems, mount points - openSUSE

You can also provide us more information about your partitioning by posting the output of

fdisk -l

(if it is realy about partitions).

Thank you so much!

[tararpharazon]

So my extension is another partition in the disk where I used to keep all my media.

I believe sda2 is where my OS is, and sda3 used to be an extension to my old operating system before I reformatted. Both were Opensuse.


This is what happens when I enter fdisk -l.


I really hope I'm making sense. I read the article and it's still a bit fuzzy to me. Thanks to all who have been helping.

I admit that I have the same problem as the others. It seems to be about partitions and file systems, but I am afraid that you are using some wording that embarrasses people.

Maybe you could update yourself a bit with reading: SDB:Basics of partitions, filesystems, mount points - openSUSE

You can also provide us more information about your partitioning by posting the output of

fdisk -l

(if it is realy about partitions).

@noospaper Original Poster

It appears that you only created an extended partition and logical partitions within it.
I agree its most likely sda3 or /srv may have contained the old operating system or as suggested servers like Apache.
While sda2 is /home and sda6 is the / (root) OS.

Pls print output from

mount
#
ls -hal   /home 
ls -hal   /srv 
ls -hal   /

[noospaper]

Silly me, I was calling it an extension when I believe it's supposed to be an extended partition? Anyways I admit it's pretty sloppy, but I just want to attach it back so I can save everything on it.

This is what I get when I enter the mount code.

mount
/dev/sda6 on / type ext4 (rw,acl,user_xattr)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
devtmpfs on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,mode=1777)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,mode=0620,gid=5)
/dev/sda2 on /home type ext4 (rw,acl,user_xattr)
/dev/sda3 on /srv type ext4 (rw)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/Cyrus/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=Cyrus)
Cyrus@linux-ujjj:~> #
Cyrus@linux-ujjj:~> ls -hal /home
total 28K
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4.0K 2010-09-10 00:36 .
drwxr-xr-x 22 root root 4.0K 2010-09-10 10:30 ..
drwxr-xr-x 38 Cyrus users 4.0K 2010-09-10 12:14 Cyrus
drwx------ 2 root root 16K 2010-09-10 00:17 lost+found
Cyrus@linux-ujjj:~> ls -hal /srv
total 28K
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4.0K 2010-08-03 20:43 .
drwxr-xr-x 22 root root 4.0K 2010-09-10 10:30 ..
drwxr-xr-x 54 Cyrus users 4.0K 2010-09-09 21:54 Cyrus
drwx------ 2 root root 16K 2010-08-03 10:04 lost+found
Cyrus@linux-ujjj:~> ls -hal /